Modest missionaries must be remembered by all

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

We have exported our brightest and our best for as long as we’ve recorded our history – but you could argue that none have left a greater positive footprint on the planet than our missionaries through the ages.

And at a time when those numbers are in massive decline, it is perhaps opportune to reflect on their dedication and generosity to people and places they could otherwise never have known, over the decades and indeed centuries.

Our missionary priests and nuns were pioneers, bringing relief, education, health and a better way of life to some of the most Godforsaken places on earth. They were professionals – doctors, nurses, teachers – who overcame incredible odds and naivety to make an impact so positive that it defies description.

And most of all, they lived their adult lives among the poorest of the poor, sharing their measly portions of food, almost devoid of worldly comforts or at times even basic requirements like water or shelter.

We knew little of their work because as well as being utterly dedicated to their mission, they were modest – all we knew was that they came home every so often and were rightly treated with reverence before they were sent back on their way with a donation from their native parish that would go towards a school or an agri project in a place that we only knew from a map.

Now, reflecting the drop in vocations closer to home, missionary numbers from Ireland are down to a trickle. And homes established by our priests and nuns decades ago are now being handed over to the native people themselves.

In many ways, this is a very good thing – people should be the authors of their own destiny – but there are repercussions too.

No longer will the missionaries be coming here to provide a visible face of their work; no longer will the collections be going to the priest or nun from the parish to help with their work in Africa or Central America.

Of course not all missionaries are religious to start with, but most are. Ours are predominantly Catholic, while the Evangelical movement provides so many from the United States.

And equally not all who work in Third World aid or relief are missionaries at all – the incredible work done by Trocaire and Goal, Bothar and Gorta has made a difference to the lives of the world’s poorest that we could never appreciate.

Others like Niall Mellon have intervened in a very direct way into a specific area, providing houses with the help of so many Irish tradesmen and women. And even more, like Adi Roche or Debbie Deegan, have given succour to the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune